Do you think I can use this mechanic legal?

[Gunnox (Gustav)]

Hi i'm new here to the forge and are currently working on my tabletop RPG called DrakeStrike which can be found on drakestrike.webs.com. Anyway do you think I can use this mechanic legal:
That all attribute points before 5 is a 1- modifier, 5 is neutral and all points after 5 is 1+ modifier

Why I ask is because this mechanic is somewhat like the Dungeons and Dragons stat mechanic and I really find this mechanic interesting so I want to use it.
What do you think/know?

[Jim D.]

Howdy!  Glad you came to join us.

Incidentally, standard practice is that we like to work with real names; Ron's mentioned it's hard to have meaningful conversations with handles.  If you could provide a first name in your display name, signature, or profile, that'd be much appreciated.

wrt your question:  I don't think there's a question of legality here at all.  It's a little silly to trademark/patent/whatever the rights to having increasing/decreasing stats modify die rolls, otherwise a lot of systems would fall apart at the seams.  Unless you're using copyrighted content (which you aren't), it's nothing to worry about.  I've seen a hundred systems use 3d6 stats and d20 rolls per the style of Dungeons & Dragons, and no one's had a bad word to say.  d20 is open license these days anyway, so even if someone had a problem, there's no legal ramifications regardless.

I'd love to see you talk about what's so fascinating about this mechanic and how it interplays with your system, but that probably belongs in First Thoughts.

[Gunnox (Gustav)]

Ok, thank you for the information!

[Gunnox (Gustav)]

I also have another question, if d20 is a open license then does it mean that i can use the creature and class names used in the SRD of D&D 3.5 edition?

[Chris_Chinn]

Hi Gustov,

You'll have to look at the specifics of the OGL license, but I believe so.  Thing is, most of the unique monsters (Beholders, Mindflayers, etc.) are not included for open use- general monsters like orcs, werewolves, ogres, etc. generally are.

On top of that, the OGL license does require that a percentage of any game you produce ALSO becomes Open License.  While that's not a huge deal in and of itself, it does mean that if you are marrying those parts of the game towards working with OGL- any future printings, revised editions, etc. will need you to fulfill the OGL requirements.

My recommendation is:
1) design your game to do what you want before anything else.
2) After you have a functioning game, decide if you really want to deal with OGL etc.  Generally, unless you're making your game to work with types of D&D, it's not going to help as much as be an annoyance at this time.

Chris

[Gunnox (Gustav)]

Thank you for the information! BTW my name is Gustav not Gustov